key: cord-0903083-qc2n7btg
authors: Yanagawa, Youichi
title: Current status of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for COVID‐19
date: 2021-07-08
journal: Acute Med Surg
DOI: 10.1002/ams2.678
sha: 777a501aa09a41cc12313984df903649d53eb1e8
doc_id: 903083
cord_uid: qc2n7btg

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The Japanese Society of Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine released a position statement concerning COVID-19 infection on March 20, 2020, as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO 2 ) requires the three Cs, especially treatments in a multiplace chamber (https://www.jshm.net/file/covid19_1.pdf). Patients with a fever over 37.5°C, cough or sputum, and those with potential COVID-19 infection are not indicated for entrance into the HBO 2 room. If a patient has confirmed COVID-19 infection, HBO 2 is not recommended, excluding cases in which the benefit of HBO 2 is superior to that without HBO 2 . The Japanese Society of Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine has also declared that HBO 2 is not recommended for the treatment of COVID-19-associated hypoxia. Instead, recommended treatment options include ventilator support or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (https://www.uhms.org/images/MiscDocs/UHMS_Guideline s_-_COVID-19_V4.pdf). However, there have been five recent reports of patients with COVID-19-associated hypoxia using HBO 2 to ameliorate their hypoxia (Table 1) as the increased amount of oxygen in the plasma due to HBO 2 may mobilize stem cells, block the inflammatory cascade, interfere with interstitial fibrosis development in the lungs, delay the onset of severe interstitial pneumonia, and reduce the risk of multiple organ failure due to an overall abated COVID-19 viral load. [2] [3] [4] [5] These five reports included four case reports or case series and one analysis of 20 cases treated with HBO 2 using a propensitymatched controls analysis. The report by Gorenstein et al. 4 described the usefulness of HBO 2 for patients with COVID-19 infection compared with controls without HBO 2 (adjusted subdistribution hazard ratios were 0.37 for inpatient mortality [P = 0.14] and 0.26 for mechanical ventilation P = 0.046]). Based on these preliminary reports, a randomized control study to verify the safety and utility of HBO 2 for patients with COVID-19, even severe cases, is now ongoing (https://www. uhms.org/images/Position-Statements/HBO2_and_COVID_ 8-10-2020_clinicaltrials_8-12-2020.pdf).

A PPROVAL OF THE research protocol with approval no. and committee name: This report was approved by the review board of our hospital (approval number: 298).

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